eCommerce Business or Online shopping has become a lifestyle now. The traditional way of shopping is on low tide. The trend of online shopping has increased ever since the coronavirus attacked the Earth. That is also why the field of e-commerce has crossed the charts. People have made millions of dollars during the pandemic while some people were unfortunate. The world is not going to get rid of this virus any sooner and that is why it is high time to start a small e-commerce business and with the passage of time, it will grow as more people will be buying things online. Here, you will know step by step how to start it.

Step 1: Select a Niche

Finding a niche is not easy. Since there are so many things you can sell online, it is hard to decide which one gives maximum profit and which commodity is in demand. For that, there are different tools; free ones and paid ones. The free tools include Google Trends and also different websites show what type of items are high in demand. You can search on the web about the paid ones.

Step 2: Find Your Interest 

If you have interest in gaming then you can sell gaming products like video games or video game consoles and much more. Other than interests, if you have specialized in something like you know a lot about gardening tools, then you can sell them online as well. All you need to do is give maximum information about the product and the information must be SEO-powered then there is no stopping you.

Step 3: Select the eCommerce Business Structure

In e-commerce, there are three types of business structure and those are explained below:

1. C2C

C2C means customer to customer. Here, any individual can sell stuff online usually via social media platforms.

2. B2B:

 It means business to business. Here, a company works with other companies by providing them services or any commodity.

3. B2C:

It means business to customers. Here, a business provides services and products to the customer.

Be sure to select the business structure very carefully as you will need to make policies, terms and conditions accordingly. 

Step 4: eCommerce Shipping Products

There are different ways to ship products:

Method 1:

If most of your customers are in the city then you can deliver the product yourself and if the customer needs it to be delivered out of the city or country then you can also use the courier.

Method 2:

 The second thing that you can do is collaborate with a manufacturer. You can get orders and keep your cut or make a contract with them and earn a commission. When you get an order, you can then transfer the order details and address to them and the product will be shipped. It is also called reselling the products and drop shipping. 

Method 3:

The third method is buying a service. If you do digital marketing then you can easily work for overseas clients but if you paint villas then you have to sell your service to inbound clients. 

Step 5: Make a Business Plan eCommerce

Some people think that making a business plan is easy but this may be the most difficult step as this piece of document can attract investors and impress banks to give you a small loan. 

Tip: Make sure that you hire a consultant / lawyer to make a business plan so that they can also make terms and conditions and policies.

Step 6: eCommerce Financial Management

Unless you are doing affiliate marketing then there is next to no investment but if you have your own product then you will need to make sure that the inventory is always available. If you don’t know how to handle an e-commerce website and systems related to it then you might as well have to hire someone for the job and that is why you need to do budgeting and stick to it very strictly. If you have your own investment then you have to make milestones and if you have taken a loan then make sure that you make a list of achievements. It is best to hire a finance manager or an accountant; they will suggest the best.

Step 7: Naming Your eCommerce Business

There is a whole psychological game in naming a business. Sometimes we see a lot of people visiting an e-commerce website but for some reason we don’t feel like shopping from there and branding experts have found out that it is because of the name. Well, look at Facebook, even though they have changed their name. So, make sure that you name your e-commerce in a way that it is meaningful, catchy, trendy, easy to pronounce and short. This may be a lot of things to consider, so take your time or ask some of your friends and family members or hire an expert for the job. 

Tip: make sure that your slogan has a keyword so that it becomes easily searchable.

Step 8: Choose Your Audience

This is the second-most important thing because if you sell gardening tools, then you don’t want kids coming to the website. For this, you will need to hire an SEO expert and a digital marketing expert who will suggest how to direct your wanted audience to your e-commerce business.

Step 9: Choose an E-Commerce Platform for Setting Up Store

You can hire a website developer or you can select e-commerce platforms to build a website. You might need to see some helping videos but you will get to it. Below are some of the most famous e-commerce platforms:

• Magneto
• Squarespace
• WooCommerce
• Shopify

Conclusion: Promote Your eCommerce Business

Like we mentioned earlier, you have to hire a digital marketer or an SEO expert for promoting and marketing your online business. If you don’t have the financial resources to hire either of them then see videos on the internet and there are hundreds of websites that tell you everything about SEO and digital marketing.